1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a female pin conductor receiving connector and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for polarizing such a connector.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Pin conductors have long been used as a means of providing a male terminal which is mateable with a female connector. Most commonly the pin conductors are arranged in a single row or double rows with the conductors staked into a printed circuit board, mounted on a water or mounted on a header.
The female connector generally includes a housing having an exterior end wall, a pair of opposing parallel exterior side walls extending from opposite edges of the end wall and a plurality of terminal receiving cavities formed between said side walls and the end wall. Each cavity has a pin receiving opening formed in the end wall. A plurality of terminals are mounted in some or all of the cavities. Each terminal has a portion that is mateable with a pin conductor when the pin conductor is received through the corresponding opening.
It is often desirable to polarize the female connector so that it will only fit on a certain array of pin conductors. This is normally done by blocking the pin receiving opening of the female connector so that said blocked opening corresponds with a missing pin conductor in a straight line array of conductors. In this manner, only the female connector having the blocked opening in the same position as the missing conductor will fit on that particular array of pin conductors.
In the past, the pin receiving opening would be blocked by one of two methods. The first method is to mold the opening shut when the housing is initially manufactured. The other method is to manufacture a small plug which is inserted into a pin receiving opening after manufacture of the connector housing. Both of these methods have proved to be extremely inefficient and relatively expensive. The first method is undesireable because it requires a mold tool change for each particular female connector housing. The second method overcomes the first method's drawbacks, however, at the cost of producing an additional part.